I certainly don't think Terry's a football genius, but he has shown the knack of (when he could afford it) hiring the right people. So the test question for me is: are they going to start by firing Nathan G, and if so, who will they replace him with? I'm not sure how Nix corporate structure works - could they sack Ricki directly or would only the CEO be able to do that?
To put my worries more clearly, I am terrified that these people have no actual clue about what they should do and have thus been listening to Billy Harris / the ACFC Knitting Circle / (fill in the blank with NZ footballing numpty of your choice).
These guys are coming in from the perspective of retaining the Nix in Wellington.
It just seems to me they are not coming in with any agenda against the way the team plays, against the coach or current organisation. From what Sam Morgan is quoted as saying they respect Terry for what he has achieved with the team for Wellington and would not step in unless Terry is not able to continue financing and running the team.
They'll leave it alone and look to support the guys in place, then work at a governance level to ensure good marketing, recruitment and budget planning is in place.
The key questions for me are:
1) What are the skills required to govern a football team?
I'd say some sports marketing abilty, some football judgement and contacts mostly for recruitment of key staff and a modicum of oversight of coaching and player recruitment plans, and the usual management, interpersonal and financial skills required for running any business. Plus that passion to motivate, support and enthuse the management coach and team well.
2) Do the new owner have those skills?
I don't think you can doubt their business skills and from what I've read about Trade Me, Sam Morgan at least knows big time about creating an enthusiastic and high perfoming culture, and about recruiting and empowering good people. The only areas you could wonder about would be sports marketing, and football connections and judgement.
Marketing; I'd bet big bucks these guys have the nouse to overseee a CEO managing that and to ensure the right sort of plans are put in place and delivered on. And the dollar committment should sure as heck give them the motivation to see that done well.
The football nouse and passion - well that's the real question. I'd bet these guys desire for their costs to be mimimised will be enough for them to want the club performing well on the pitch. So all that's left is the extent to which they have the nouse to hire (if and when required) the best head coach and CEO, and their ability to provide those guys with a reasonable board level challenge and sounding board and support on football matters. Maybe they'll want to add to the Board to cover that. Maybe they'd be interested in Terry having a role, or some-one like Terry who has that football enthusiasm and knowledge. Maybe they get by for a while with just Ricki and his own contacts and then look to pick up Ryan Nelsen when he comes home.....
mjp22011-09-16 13:56:03
"Phoenix till they lose"
